Coach ride ........boat ride no more.
On Sunday 4th July 2004, there was a terrible accident between a lorry and a passenger coach at Lancang, a town about 80km east of KL. In which there were about 25 injuries from the bus passengers, the driver got thrown out and landed in the river below and broke his hip and his arm, (the accident happened on a narow bridge while the lorry driver was trying to overtake a motorcyclist), a motorcyclist ram into the coach from the back and a car also did the same, and I think all got killed whilst the lorry driver got decapicitated. That to me is a terrible accident. (I used to ride in the same route by the same coaches on my travel from KL to Kuantan and from Kuantan to KL when I do not wish to drive). And as a result of the accident there was about 25 km of cars queing. What was most unpleasant other than the injuries and death due to the accident was that the KL/Kuantan Highway awas already almost ready to be opened and yet not opened. I do not know why. They said that the Highway is not fully ready and will only be opened in August. I hope so. Come to think of it, had the Highway been opened, could such accident take place? I suppose it could but the probability could have been lessened. Will the authority take the signal now that such a terrible accident had happened. Of course some people will balme it on the reckless lorry driver or the coach driver who might have been driving at speed, trying to cross the narow bridge ahead of the other (I suppose). I mean that is ot the point, the point is by opening the Highway injuries might have been prevented and lives may been saved. I remember before they opened the North- South Highway (Penanag/KL) many terrible road acidents had happened to those travelling south to KL but after the opening of the North- South Highway, the no. of accidents have been reduced greatly.
But again, opening of a Highway is only a mean of preventing an accident. A few days after the above accident, another accident happened where a coach rammed into the back of a lorry on the North-South Highway, but this time in Johore. And it happened on a Highway.
I am going back to the article I wrote earlier about travelling on coaches in Malaysia. I suppose I am being a bit nostalgic here and also trying to say how fast we Malaysian tend to forget after a road accident. Malaysia is famous for ttat flash in the pan attitude, and then leaving it forgotten forever.
I am also re-publishing the article just to share what the passengers might have experienced whilst travelling the KL/Kuantan/way by coach, imagining what they saw when they travelled that way before they met the terrible accident above. Had it not been for the accident, the journey could have been very pleasant.
I must note that about 6 months ago we heard nothing else but road accidents. But then it was the festival and also school holiday seasons. One of the worst case was a school bus - passenger coach accident in the Kuala Lipis area where 14 people died. Typical of us Malaysians, we reacted to the situation by inventing new safety rules, as if there are inadequate rules already in place. Malaysians never learn, an incident happens and they react with stern measures. No proactive thinking whatsoever. And after 6 months they will forget about the whole incident. And worse still at this time when there was a Cabinet change.
While traveling on a bus/coach to KL from the East Coast it reflected on me how easy, convenient and comfortable it is to travel nowadays from town to town in Malaysia by buses/coach There I was in this fully air-conditioned, felt covered seat, window curtained, soft suspension bus/coach traveling on this smooth road listening to DJ playing soft popular music from one of the many radio stations that can be received along the way, at a time convenient to me for my travel. The drivers young and energetic, and most likely trained in a proper bus/coach driver training school. And there were two of them.
And the scene along the way, with all the development and brick built houses replacing the wooden ones.
While travelling, and as I was really doing nothing on the coach, I thought of sharing views of progress that had been made in the last 50 years from the eye of a Malay, like I, who has been lucky enough to be given the facilities and the opportunity to progress along with the development of Malaysia until today. And there is nothing better than to see them while travelling on a bus/coach. To others reading this article who has not lived that long or who has not been given the opportunity, I only have to say that God has been on my side, an I thank God.
The bus/coach leaving its base on time, from a convenient bus station in the centre of the town, in my case for this article its the Kuantan Town. And there were many companies with such bus/coach for public traveling convenience. And reaching its destined destination on time safely, but accidents do happen now and then. Unlike the old days, the bus floors now is carpeted, no chicken, no dried rubber sheets in the middle, baggage placed in a special compartment in the body of the bus/coach. And small hand-carried baggage in special overhead compartments in the bus/coach. Depending on the season, most coaches are only filled to three-quarter of its capacity during off peak seasons but fully packed during school and special celebrations holidays seasons. In those seasons you may have to book months ahead. Luckily for me, I do not travel in those seasons in bus/coach, I am lucky enough now to have owned cars to travel in to any destination I wish to.
In the old days, the first bus I ever boarded was a rickety, wooden framed bus, open sided, exposed to weather, traveling about 6 miles from a riverine town to an inland town of about the same size. The seats were wooden, placed on the side, facing each other. It was a treat I will always remember. No complaint of the hard wooden seats or the noisy gear changes of the driver. There was only wooden steps when you boarded the bus, some from the back and some from the side of the driver. And no door.
The modern bus/coach I boarded has its engine placed at the rear. It was a noiseless drive, you do not even see the driver, he is well seated in a comfortable seat in front, behind a partition, and you only see him when you board or leave the bus. And the doors are all by his left side, closed when you travel, and can only be opened by the driver using probably hydraulic or pneumatic means. And the windows are curtained with beautiful well designed fabrics, clean and laundered they were, on a rail with even a catch to hold them when you want them folded.
Going to the bus station from my place of abode in town I walked on dust free but busy metalled surfaced road, under shady trees especially planted on the road sides, these trees are decorative trees as well as giving shade. There were people on the road, strangers who do not even say "Hello" to you. I am just one in a crowd, faceless and nameless. To them I was a person carrying a haversack on my back. What I do and who am I, no one cares. I look a bit old, but in this era, age is just a number.
In those days, when I was a teenager, I have to go more often by bus on a long journeys, and these journeys were routine, almost every 3 to 4 months repeatedly. Having to catch a bus then in a small riverine town going to a town further inland, about 60 kilometers away towards Kuala Lumpur. That was a long and tedious journey, full of adventure and danger as in those days it was still during the Emergency time, the roads were narrow and you may be even be stopped at anytime along the way by the Communist (terrorist). I think we were stopped more often by the Police and not even once by the Communist And you lugged along your baggage when you boarded the bus. But then in those days the bus conductors were helpful lot, they helped you and the they placed your luggage on top of the bus where they had specially made wooden or metalled framed carriers and were well covered by thick canvas to protect your luggage from the elements along the way. And along the way the bus stopped often to pick up passengers, some Malays but mostly young Chinese rubber tappers, mostly girls/women in black and well covered from head to toe on the way to tap rubber (in the morning) or back (in the afternoon) from tapping rubber. Spying through their cover, some were very pretty really.
The long distance bus/coach now do not pick up passengers along the way, except at certain prearranged locations. But they do drop off passengers at locations requested by the passengers concerned. Most of them are travelers, not workers. And they are mostly well dressed, not in working clothings. Yes, passengers clothings nowadays, they are most varied but very fashionable and in all sorts of colours. But in most cases they seems to have some sort of pullovers or jumpers or thin sport of jacket; the air conditioning in those bus/coaches now can be quite cold especially at night or during rains storms. The glass widows are fixed and not openable. Most passengers seems to be young and students or some young working persons, probably Clerks. There are also families but few with small children. Probably all about middle class Malays and some Chinese and a few Indians and Others. I have even met an Orang Asli on the such bus/coaches one day.
The buses I used to go by in those days have glass sliding windows on wooden frame. These windows were always opened, to let fresh air in. But when it rained, these have to be quickly pulled up to avoid rain coming in. Air-conditioned bus/coach was too far away from anyone's mind. And of course when these windows were open, the passengers were open to dust and fumes (what fresh air?), but in those days there was dust but very limited fumes as car and lorries were quite far in between. Never wear white, it might just stain brown after the long journey, I found it out the hard way as my school uniform was all white then and I on occasion rode on these buses wearing the school uniform..
Ever try riding buses then or now? Try it, its an experience. For me its not really seeking experience but in most cases out of necessity. I travel quite often outstation. And planes fares are expensive. And modern buses/coaches are very convenient mode of transport. But of course some people prefer to drive their own cars.
One drawback when traveling by these modern buses/coaches is when they stop to rest at some very dirty outback restaurants/inns where its far away from normal civilisation. You have no choice but to seek for food in those restaurants, use their dirty washrooms, smelly and most unhygienic in most cases. When you stop during prayer time, you have to pray in surau they provide, and these suraus are also quite dirty by normal standards, at least by the standard I am used to. And the food these restaurants serve, most unappetising. But why do these buses/coaches stop at these places? Some say these places serves cheaper food, some say because its easier to control the passengers, that they do not go astray when the coach/bus is about to leave and many say that the dtivers get free meals and cigarettes at these places. And probably, if the good Minister was telling the truth recently about buses/coaches drivers are high on dadah, then they may even buy dadah from these places, who knows.
When you go by coach from Kuantan to KL or KL to Kuantan, you have to cross the Temerloh Bridge which span the Pahang River, the biggest river in Peninsular Malaysia. The bridge is high above the river and is not within reach by flood waters thus far that had happened in Pahang. Pahang River is flood prone, and those people living by its bank have all been advised to move upland to higher ground, plots of land provided by the Govt. A majority of them have moved to these new areas but many of are staying put where they are. These folks have been living in those riverine areas for generations and many decades and to make them move out may not really be socially acceptable to them. And looking at the Pahang River again brought a lot of good memories to me. And from that bridge vantage point one can see the Temerloh Town, the Semantan River and the big Pahang River meeting the Sungei Semantan. History was created in that Town and the mouth of Sungei Semantan when Datuk Bahaman rebelled against the British rule in late 19th century.
When I was a small boy growing up in a riverine kampong, at the bank of Pahang River, about 12 miles upriver, the first time I traveled out by public transport, was on an outboard engined boat which could take about 20 passengers. It took about 2 hours to reach Temerloh Town, the down river 'big' riverine town. The boat then had inverted V-shaped attap roof, and later on as time progresses the roof became flat and made of flattened galvanised zinc sheets. On that first trip, having to get up early in the morning to catch the boat, waiting on a logged floated wooden platform jetty in the cool misty morning. The boat came, we waived and the boat neared the 'jetty', stopped; half-full with upriver people, and laden in the middle portion with chicken or/and dried rubber sheets to be marketed in the down river big town. Along the big river bank the scene were all peaceful Malay villages, and in that period of the Emergency you could even see houses that had been burnt and coconut trees dying due to them being torched by the what the Government at that time called Communist terrorist. You don't actually see these terrorists but they existed and it was their kind that probably burnt those houses, Malay houses they were. Other than that the river was very peaceful and the banks were filled with beautiful scenery of swaying coconut palm trees and areca nut palms, and big tall trees either wild or fruit trees and people bathing or washing clothes in them, and some in small enclosures on these log 'jetties' doing their "business". Occasionally you may see water buffaloes, cooling themselves in the shallower portions of the river. The scenery was beautiful, of peaceful Malay riverine villages, and they were there almost all along the way.
In those days there were many people living in houses built on wooden log rafts in the river bank just below the Temerloh town, and most of these people were migrants from Kelantan. And when the boat neared aand being tied to these wooden 'jetty', there were always hives of activities, mostly involving Chinese coolies, some grabbing the chicken to buy and most negotiating to take the rubber sheets to their designated towkeys whose shops were just up the bank of the river. These Chinese coolies were really strong, they could pick up rubber sheets almost equal to their own body weight or maybe more, put these on their shoulders, carry them up the river bank to their designated rubber dealer towkay. And the weighing instruments they used to weigh the rubber sheets were something old fashioned, spring supported, levers using heavy solid cast iron counter weight. How accurate were they? Difficult to tell as in those days as enforcement were not really that visible. I expect that they must have made a lot of profit from the inaccuraciesof these weighing instruments. Anyway in those days nobody really cared as rubber price were then very high, it was the period just after the big wars and about to begin the Korean War. And the kampong people were really enjoying the rubber price boom, buying furniture and jewelry most of them, when they earn their big money. Saving? Nobody really saved in those days.
When do these town goers return after their trip by boats to the town? They reached Temerloh by about 8.30 to 9.00 o'clock And they finish their selling by about 1 hour later, after which they begin their buying. What do they buy? Menfolks buy mostly furniture and some items of clothings but women folks bought mostly jeweleries and plenty of clothings/haberdasheries. But business people buy items to sell back in the kampongs, like dried fish, condensed milk, flour, sugar, sweets, bottled drinks and such likes. By 12 o'clock they all have to rush back to the 'jetty' to be on the boats for the return journey. The return journey is always tiresome, boat going upriver in a slower pace, in the heat of the day and boat full of items just bought. The middle of the boat is usually full of the 'business' men's items, you can hardly put your leg in those areas. So you are squeezed. Safety? There was no lifejacket, no nothing. If the boat sinks, then you either sink or swim. In those days, almost everyone could swim. And when you reach your home, you are almost dead, tired because of the journey and probably with the excitement of going to town.
Slow, but it was all we had in those days. At least the boats had outboard engines. What about in earlier times when there was no outboard engine, only paddles and long poles to push the boats upriver or down river. And yet they managed to sometimes go up river from Pekan, at the mouth of Pahang River up to Kuala Lipis, almost the uppermost point of the Pahang River, and maybe back after a few days. How long did it take? In those days time was never a factor to be considered. .
Now when you look down river from the Temerloh bridge, from you coach, you can still see the island formed by the sand bank, all overgrown with tall grass, weeds and some 'ara' trees. But when you look upriver, you do not see the flotilla of those motorboats anymore, you do not see the bigger diesel-engine driven big boats, and you do not see the Sultan's Houseboat (this boat was used by the late HH Sultan of Pahang as his 'hotel' for his annual visit to the people -his subjects - of Temerloh District, ferrying him and probably occasionally, his joget girls) being anchored next to the jetty down river of the Temerloh Town anymore. You may however see 1 or 2 old fashioned flat-roofed passenger outboard motor boat crossing the Pahang River, ferrying people from the other side of the Pahang River to Temerloh Town. They are most busy on Sundays, when Temerloh Town has its market day or Pekan Sahari Those days of passenger ferrying outboard motor boats on Pahang River are gone. Time has passed us by. Anyway the Pahang River has now become too shallow to safely maneuver these outboard motor boats, the river has silted and the deeper parts of the river are few in between. And motorcars, buses and lorries have taken over the tasks of ferrying people and carriage of goods in Pahang.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
But again, opening of a Highway is only a mean of preventing an accident. A few days after the above accident, another accident happened where a coach rammed into the back of a lorry on the North-South Highway, but this time in Johore. And it happened on a Highway.
I am going back to the article I wrote earlier about travelling on coaches in Malaysia. I suppose I am being a bit nostalgic here and also trying to say how fast we Malaysian tend to forget after a road accident. Malaysia is famous for ttat flash in the pan attitude, and then leaving it forgotten forever.
I am also re-publishing the article just to share what the passengers might have experienced whilst travelling the KL/Kuantan/way by coach, imagining what they saw when they travelled that way before they met the terrible accident above. Had it not been for the accident, the journey could have been very pleasant.
I must note that about 6 months ago we heard nothing else but road accidents. But then it was the festival and also school holiday seasons. One of the worst case was a school bus - passenger coach accident in the Kuala Lipis area where 14 people died. Typical of us Malaysians, we reacted to the situation by inventing new safety rules, as if there are inadequate rules already in place. Malaysians never learn, an incident happens and they react with stern measures. No proactive thinking whatsoever. And after 6 months they will forget about the whole incident. And worse still at this time when there was a Cabinet change.
While traveling on a bus/coach to KL from the East Coast it reflected on me how easy, convenient and comfortable it is to travel nowadays from town to town in Malaysia by buses/coach There I was in this fully air-conditioned, felt covered seat, window curtained, soft suspension bus/coach traveling on this smooth road listening to DJ playing soft popular music from one of the many radio stations that can be received along the way, at a time convenient to me for my travel. The drivers young and energetic, and most likely trained in a proper bus/coach driver training school. And there were two of them.
And the scene along the way, with all the development and brick built houses replacing the wooden ones.
While travelling, and as I was really doing nothing on the coach, I thought of sharing views of progress that had been made in the last 50 years from the eye of a Malay, like I, who has been lucky enough to be given the facilities and the opportunity to progress along with the development of Malaysia until today. And there is nothing better than to see them while travelling on a bus/coach. To others reading this article who has not lived that long or who has not been given the opportunity, I only have to say that God has been on my side, an I thank God.
The bus/coach leaving its base on time, from a convenient bus station in the centre of the town, in my case for this article its the Kuantan Town. And there were many companies with such bus/coach for public traveling convenience. And reaching its destined destination on time safely, but accidents do happen now and then. Unlike the old days, the bus floors now is carpeted, no chicken, no dried rubber sheets in the middle, baggage placed in a special compartment in the body of the bus/coach. And small hand-carried baggage in special overhead compartments in the bus/coach. Depending on the season, most coaches are only filled to three-quarter of its capacity during off peak seasons but fully packed during school and special celebrations holidays seasons. In those seasons you may have to book months ahead. Luckily for me, I do not travel in those seasons in bus/coach, I am lucky enough now to have owned cars to travel in to any destination I wish to.
In the old days, the first bus I ever boarded was a rickety, wooden framed bus, open sided, exposed to weather, traveling about 6 miles from a riverine town to an inland town of about the same size. The seats were wooden, placed on the side, facing each other. It was a treat I will always remember. No complaint of the hard wooden seats or the noisy gear changes of the driver. There was only wooden steps when you boarded the bus, some from the back and some from the side of the driver. And no door.
The modern bus/coach I boarded has its engine placed at the rear. It was a noiseless drive, you do not even see the driver, he is well seated in a comfortable seat in front, behind a partition, and you only see him when you board or leave the bus. And the doors are all by his left side, closed when you travel, and can only be opened by the driver using probably hydraulic or pneumatic means. And the windows are curtained with beautiful well designed fabrics, clean and laundered they were, on a rail with even a catch to hold them when you want them folded.
Going to the bus station from my place of abode in town I walked on dust free but busy metalled surfaced road, under shady trees especially planted on the road sides, these trees are decorative trees as well as giving shade. There were people on the road, strangers who do not even say "Hello" to you. I am just one in a crowd, faceless and nameless. To them I was a person carrying a haversack on my back. What I do and who am I, no one cares. I look a bit old, but in this era, age is just a number.
In those days, when I was a teenager, I have to go more often by bus on a long journeys, and these journeys were routine, almost every 3 to 4 months repeatedly. Having to catch a bus then in a small riverine town going to a town further inland, about 60 kilometers away towards Kuala Lumpur. That was a long and tedious journey, full of adventure and danger as in those days it was still during the Emergency time, the roads were narrow and you may be even be stopped at anytime along the way by the Communist (terrorist). I think we were stopped more often by the Police and not even once by the Communist And you lugged along your baggage when you boarded the bus. But then in those days the bus conductors were helpful lot, they helped you and the they placed your luggage on top of the bus where they had specially made wooden or metalled framed carriers and were well covered by thick canvas to protect your luggage from the elements along the way. And along the way the bus stopped often to pick up passengers, some Malays but mostly young Chinese rubber tappers, mostly girls/women in black and well covered from head to toe on the way to tap rubber (in the morning) or back (in the afternoon) from tapping rubber. Spying through their cover, some were very pretty really.
The long distance bus/coach now do not pick up passengers along the way, except at certain prearranged locations. But they do drop off passengers at locations requested by the passengers concerned. Most of them are travelers, not workers. And they are mostly well dressed, not in working clothings. Yes, passengers clothings nowadays, they are most varied but very fashionable and in all sorts of colours. But in most cases they seems to have some sort of pullovers or jumpers or thin sport of jacket; the air conditioning in those bus/coaches now can be quite cold especially at night or during rains storms. The glass widows are fixed and not openable. Most passengers seems to be young and students or some young working persons, probably Clerks. There are also families but few with small children. Probably all about middle class Malays and some Chinese and a few Indians and Others. I have even met an Orang Asli on the such bus/coaches one day.
The buses I used to go by in those days have glass sliding windows on wooden frame. These windows were always opened, to let fresh air in. But when it rained, these have to be quickly pulled up to avoid rain coming in. Air-conditioned bus/coach was too far away from anyone's mind. And of course when these windows were open, the passengers were open to dust and fumes (what fresh air?), but in those days there was dust but very limited fumes as car and lorries were quite far in between. Never wear white, it might just stain brown after the long journey, I found it out the hard way as my school uniform was all white then and I on occasion rode on these buses wearing the school uniform..
Ever try riding buses then or now? Try it, its an experience. For me its not really seeking experience but in most cases out of necessity. I travel quite often outstation. And planes fares are expensive. And modern buses/coaches are very convenient mode of transport. But of course some people prefer to drive their own cars.
One drawback when traveling by these modern buses/coaches is when they stop to rest at some very dirty outback restaurants/inns where its far away from normal civilisation. You have no choice but to seek for food in those restaurants, use their dirty washrooms, smelly and most unhygienic in most cases. When you stop during prayer time, you have to pray in surau they provide, and these suraus are also quite dirty by normal standards, at least by the standard I am used to. And the food these restaurants serve, most unappetising. But why do these buses/coaches stop at these places? Some say these places serves cheaper food, some say because its easier to control the passengers, that they do not go astray when the coach/bus is about to leave and many say that the dtivers get free meals and cigarettes at these places. And probably, if the good Minister was telling the truth recently about buses/coaches drivers are high on dadah, then they may even buy dadah from these places, who knows.
When you go by coach from Kuantan to KL or KL to Kuantan, you have to cross the Temerloh Bridge which span the Pahang River, the biggest river in Peninsular Malaysia. The bridge is high above the river and is not within reach by flood waters thus far that had happened in Pahang. Pahang River is flood prone, and those people living by its bank have all been advised to move upland to higher ground, plots of land provided by the Govt. A majority of them have moved to these new areas but many of are staying put where they are. These folks have been living in those riverine areas for generations and many decades and to make them move out may not really be socially acceptable to them. And looking at the Pahang River again brought a lot of good memories to me. And from that bridge vantage point one can see the Temerloh Town, the Semantan River and the big Pahang River meeting the Sungei Semantan. History was created in that Town and the mouth of Sungei Semantan when Datuk Bahaman rebelled against the British rule in late 19th century.
When I was a small boy growing up in a riverine kampong, at the bank of Pahang River, about 12 miles upriver, the first time I traveled out by public transport, was on an outboard engined boat which could take about 20 passengers. It took about 2 hours to reach Temerloh Town, the down river 'big' riverine town. The boat then had inverted V-shaped attap roof, and later on as time progresses the roof became flat and made of flattened galvanised zinc sheets. On that first trip, having to get up early in the morning to catch the boat, waiting on a logged floated wooden platform jetty in the cool misty morning. The boat came, we waived and the boat neared the 'jetty', stopped; half-full with upriver people, and laden in the middle portion with chicken or/and dried rubber sheets to be marketed in the down river big town. Along the big river bank the scene were all peaceful Malay villages, and in that period of the Emergency you could even see houses that had been burnt and coconut trees dying due to them being torched by the what the Government at that time called Communist terrorist. You don't actually see these terrorists but they existed and it was their kind that probably burnt those houses, Malay houses they were. Other than that the river was very peaceful and the banks were filled with beautiful scenery of swaying coconut palm trees and areca nut palms, and big tall trees either wild or fruit trees and people bathing or washing clothes in them, and some in small enclosures on these log 'jetties' doing their "business". Occasionally you may see water buffaloes, cooling themselves in the shallower portions of the river. The scenery was beautiful, of peaceful Malay riverine villages, and they were there almost all along the way.
In those days there were many people living in houses built on wooden log rafts in the river bank just below the Temerloh town, and most of these people were migrants from Kelantan. And when the boat neared aand being tied to these wooden 'jetty', there were always hives of activities, mostly involving Chinese coolies, some grabbing the chicken to buy and most negotiating to take the rubber sheets to their designated towkeys whose shops were just up the bank of the river. These Chinese coolies were really strong, they could pick up rubber sheets almost equal to their own body weight or maybe more, put these on their shoulders, carry them up the river bank to their designated rubber dealer towkay. And the weighing instruments they used to weigh the rubber sheets were something old fashioned, spring supported, levers using heavy solid cast iron counter weight. How accurate were they? Difficult to tell as in those days as enforcement were not really that visible. I expect that they must have made a lot of profit from the inaccuraciesof these weighing instruments. Anyway in those days nobody really cared as rubber price were then very high, it was the period just after the big wars and about to begin the Korean War. And the kampong people were really enjoying the rubber price boom, buying furniture and jewelry most of them, when they earn their big money. Saving? Nobody really saved in those days.
When do these town goers return after their trip by boats to the town? They reached Temerloh by about 8.30 to 9.00 o'clock And they finish their selling by about 1 hour later, after which they begin their buying. What do they buy? Menfolks buy mostly furniture and some items of clothings but women folks bought mostly jeweleries and plenty of clothings/haberdasheries. But business people buy items to sell back in the kampongs, like dried fish, condensed milk, flour, sugar, sweets, bottled drinks and such likes. By 12 o'clock they all have to rush back to the 'jetty' to be on the boats for the return journey. The return journey is always tiresome, boat going upriver in a slower pace, in the heat of the day and boat full of items just bought. The middle of the boat is usually full of the 'business' men's items, you can hardly put your leg in those areas. So you are squeezed. Safety? There was no lifejacket, no nothing. If the boat sinks, then you either sink or swim. In those days, almost everyone could swim. And when you reach your home, you are almost dead, tired because of the journey and probably with the excitement of going to town.
Slow, but it was all we had in those days. At least the boats had outboard engines. What about in earlier times when there was no outboard engine, only paddles and long poles to push the boats upriver or down river. And yet they managed to sometimes go up river from Pekan, at the mouth of Pahang River up to Kuala Lipis, almost the uppermost point of the Pahang River, and maybe back after a few days. How long did it take? In those days time was never a factor to be considered. .
Now when you look down river from the Temerloh bridge, from you coach, you can still see the island formed by the sand bank, all overgrown with tall grass, weeds and some 'ara' trees. But when you look upriver, you do not see the flotilla of those motorboats anymore, you do not see the bigger diesel-engine driven big boats, and you do not see the Sultan's Houseboat (this boat was used by the late HH Sultan of Pahang as his 'hotel' for his annual visit to the people -his subjects - of Temerloh District, ferrying him and probably occasionally, his joget girls) being anchored next to the jetty down river of the Temerloh Town anymore. You may however see 1 or 2 old fashioned flat-roofed passenger outboard motor boat crossing the Pahang River, ferrying people from the other side of the Pahang River to Temerloh Town. They are most busy on Sundays, when Temerloh Town has its market day or Pekan Sahari Those days of passenger ferrying outboard motor boats on Pahang River are gone. Time has passed us by. Anyway the Pahang River has now become too shallow to safely maneuver these outboard motor boats, the river has silted and the deeper parts of the river are few in between. And motorcars, buses and lorries have taken over the tasks of ferrying people and carriage of goods in Pahang.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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